New Wave Outpost Forum

I never understood why this song never became a hit for Dolby here in the States. It's a beautiful and deeply sad song with a killer melody. I also thought this would be a bigger hit than "She Blinded Me with Science." This song is simply amazing.

The wistful and melancholy mood of the piece coupled with the veiled political message was not very conducive to mainstream airplay back in the early 80's IMO. The quirky, synthy beat of SBMWS was definitely more top 40 friendly during that time. I do agr

All of Dolby's dreamier tracks are my favorites: Submarines, Airwaves, and Windpower form a killer triumvirate of other-worldly tunes.

I think the key to your sentence is "hit here in the States". A song that good would never become a hit here in the US. By the way, I think that is Mr. Dolby's best song.

Classic tune that got some airplay in Atlanta back in '81-'82 era . It sorta falls into that category of songs like The Chills "Pink Frost", Joy Division "24 Hours", and The Cure "Play For Today" .

I don't remember the video for "One of Our Submarines", but if there was one and MTV pushed it, the song would have been picked up by many stations across the nation. No doubt I could live the rest of my life without hearing "She Blinded Me With Science"

Great point Martini, I felt the same way about "I Scare Myself". That song seemed haunting to me. Nothing like a good haunting melody. I always thought "She Blinded Me With Science" was lack luster at best. Except for the video with the hot Asian chick [:

[quote][i]Originally posted by Sean[/i]
I think that is Mr. Dolby's best song.
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[quote][i]Originally posted by Rubbeet921[/i]
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Nice coincidence - iPod just shuffled through Submarine.
I agree with you all on Science - perhaps with a better set of lyrics it would have left a better impression. The music on its own is great...

I remember Europa And The Pirate Twins and One Of Our Submarines got alot of air played on KFOG 104.5 in the 80's and If One Of Our Submarines Hit #17 on the billboards top 100. Its a hit song to me.
1982 Listen Now! Europa And The Pirate Twins Mains

This is such a great song...I can remember buying the cassette when it came out because of the vid for "Blinded me with Science", but then fell in love with this track and especially my favorite T.D. song 'Cloudburst at Shingle Street'...

Great Urban L

I'm sure it didn't become a hit partly because it's over 5:00 long. I worked in radio in those days and we played some of the New Wave hits. But we didn't normally play songs more than 5:00 in length.

Personally I think it's a wonderful song.

Definatly his best tune which DID get a huge amount of airplay in lil ole Rhode Island.[:D]

My favorite Dolby tune, it also got good airplay here in the beehive state.